commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence or sometimes abbreviated as AHP (; oc, Aups d'Auta Provença; ) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the south, Vaucluse to the west ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in southeastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
History
Prehistory
In the nearby Gorges du Verdon, there are a number of caves (known as "baumes"), which were occupied intermittently for over 400,000 years. The most significant of these caves is the "Baume Bonne", which has been studied by various archaeologists, including
Henry de Lumley
Henry de Lumley (born 1934 in Marseille) is a French archeologist, geologist and prehistorian. He is director of the Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris, and Professor Emeritus at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He is also a corres ...
.
The Baume Bonne was occupied first during the end of the
Lower Paleolithic
The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in ...
, 400,000 years ago. It was occupied again 150–300,000 years ago. Tools made using the
Levallois technique
The Levallois technique () is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to 300,000 years ago during the Middle Palaeolithic period. It is part of the Mousterian stone tool industry, and was u ...
have been found dating from this era. Neanderthals inhabited the caves later, around 130,000 years ago. Remains of
cave bears
The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ''sp ...
dating from this period have been found. The Neanderthals were eventually succeeded by Cro-Magnon men, who occupied the cave during the Upper Paleolithic. Finally, modern humans lived in the cave during Neolithic.
Population
See also
*
Coteaux de Pierrevert AOC
Coteaux de Pierrevert is a wine-growing AOC in the western part of the Provence wine region of France, where the wines are produced in 11 communes of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département. It is partly located in the valley of the Durance ...